The 2016 Condition of Higher Education in Iowa Report

Investigating trends and current issues affecting degree and certificate attainment in the State of Iowa. The report considers workforce demands for educated workers, population and demographic trends and projections, educational preparation for college, financial preparation for college, enrollment trends at Iowa colleges and universities, entering the Iowa workforce, and meeting the needs of the Iowa workforce. Data compares Iowa against national trends.

Exploring How Well UK Coach Education Meets the Needs of Women Sports Coaches

Inclusive and equitable processes are important to the development of sports coaching. The aim of this study was to explore how well UK coach education meets the needs of women sports coaches in order to make recommendations to further enhance the engagement of, and support for, aspiring and existing women coaches. The national governing bodies (NGBs) of four sports (Cycling, Equestrian, Gymnastics and Rowing) volunteered to participate and semi-structured interviews using the tenants of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) within a Self Determination Theory (SDT) framework were undertaken with 23 coaches, eight coach educators and five NGB officers. The data themed into an analytic structure derived from SDT comprising ‘Autonomy: Freedom to coach’, ‘Coaching competence’, and ‘Relatedness and belonging’. The coaches perceived potential benefit from enhanced relatedness and belonging within their sport with the findings suggesting that NGBs should embrace coach-led decision making in terms of the developmental topics which are important and should adopt the development of competence, rather than assessing technical understanding, as the foundational principle of more inclusive coach education. Future research should investigate the impact of the inclusive practices which are recommended within this investigation such as the softening of the technocratic focus of formal coach education.

Applications of a Collaborative Open Object Oriented Learning Environment to Electronics, Computing and Mathematics Education

A lightweight Java application suite has been developed and deployed allowing collaborative learning between students and tutors at remote locations. Students can engage in group activities online and also collaborate with tutors. A generic Java framework has been developed and applied to electronics, computing and mathematics education. The applications are respectively: (a) a digital circuit simulator, which allows students to collaborate in building simple or complex electronic circuits; (b) a Java programming environment where the paradigm is behavioural-based robotics, and (c) a differential equation solver useful in modelling of any complex and nonlinear dynamic system. Each student sees a common shared window on which may be added text or graphical objects and which can then be shared online. A built-in chat room supports collaborative dialogue. Students can work either in collaborative groups or else in teams as directed by the tutor. This paper summarises the technical architecture of the system as well as the pedagogical implications of the suite. A report of student evaluation is also presented distilled from use over a period of twelve months. We intend this suite to facilitate learning between groups at one or many institutions and to facilitate international collaboration. We also intend to use the suite as a tool to research the establishment and behaviour of collaborative learning groups. We shall make our software freely available to interested researchers.

Integration of learning and practice as part of the educational system development in Eritrea. "School Management" - a distance learning program by technical university of Kaiserslautern

The distance learning program "School Management" supports decision makers at the school and ministerial levels in the shaping of formal and informal learning processes at different levels in schools and curricula in Eritrea. This paper examines how the distance learning program is interconnected to educational system development. (DIPF/Orig.)

Developmental TVET rhetoric in-action: the White Paper for post-school education and training in South Africa

This paper explores the extent to which latest developments in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training System in South Africa respond to key principles espoused for a developmental, democratic and inclusionary ideal. The White Paper for post school education and training approved by Cabinet in November, 2013 is referred to by the Minister as the “definitive statement of the governments vision for the post school system” and as such represents a crucial strategy document intended to chart the TVET direction to 2030. Using key theoretical constructs from development theory, this paper provides an assessment of the TVET strategy contained is the paper and explores the extent to which it does respond to the agenda defined by the promise. It is argued that the challenges outlined are not yet able to provide the blueprint for a TVET transformative vision. It is concluded that while the development rhetoric contained in the paper is plausible, the creative tinkering of the system is unlikely to lead to the radical revisioning necessary for a truly transformative TVET system. The underlying assumptions regarding purpose, impact and outcome will need to be carefully reconsidered if the system is to be responsive to the promises of the democratic developmental ideal to which the government is committed. (DIPF/Orig.)

Technical and Didactical Scenarios of Student-centered Teaching and Learning

In this paper we envision didactical concepts for university education based on self-responsible and project-based learning and outline principles of adequate technical support. We use the scenario technique describing how a fictive student named Anna organizes her studies of informatics at a fictive university from the first days of her studies to make a career for herself.(DIPF/Orig.)

Factors associated with the technical quality of root canal fillings performed by undergraduate dental students in a Malaysian Dental School

Aim: A retrospective clinical audit was carried out on records of endodontic treatment performed by dental undergraduates. The audit was performed to evaluate the technical quality of root canal fillings performed by dental undergraduates and determine the associated factors. Methods: 140 records of patients who had received root canal treatment by dental undergraduates were evaluated through periapical radiographs by two examiners (κ =0.74). The root canal fillings had their quality evaluated according to extent, condensation and presence of procedural mishap. Possible factors associated with technical quality such as tooth type, canal curvature, student level and quality of record keeping were evaluated. Data were statistically analyzed using chi-square test (p<0.05). Results: Among the 140 root-filled teeth, acceptable extent, condensation and no-mishap were observed in 72.1%, 66.4% and 77.9% cases respectively. Overall, the technical quality of 68 (48.6%) root-filled teeth was considered acceptable. Overall, non-acceptable root canal fillings were significantly more likely to be observed in molars (69.2%), moderately and severely curved canals (71.4%) and junior students (61.5%). There was no association between acceptable root canal fillings and quality of record keeping. Conclusions: The technical quality of root canal fillings was acceptable in 48.6% cases and it was associated with tooth type, degree of canal curvature and student seniority.

A phenomenological study of Irish and Portuguese women’s experiences of receiving family support when studying STEM subjects at technical institutes

Comunicação apresentada na 44th SEFI Conference, 12-­15 September 2016, Tampere, Finland

The struggle to technicise in education policy

In contemporary education policy, simplified technical accounts of policy problems and solutions are being produced with the use of numeric calculations. These calculations are seen as clear and unbiased, capable of revealing ‘‘what works’’ and identifying ‘‘best practices.’’ In this piece, the authors use resources from the materialsemiotic approach of actor-network theory to discuss how calculations have begun to serve as a subtle infrastructure underpinning the way we understand and organise our world. They demonstrate the usefulness of the approach in tracing the technicisation of policy by deploying it to qualitative studies of like-school comparisons in the two unexpectedly linked locations—New York City and Australia. The authors reveal how technical accounts are precarious and need constant maintenance to endure, even as they increasingly becoming routine, curtailing the policy imagination and limiting the spaces of contestation. It is for this reason, they argue, that a deeper understanding and sustained critique of such accounts is of pressing importance.

Acceptability of videoconference technology for the delivery of continuing education to rural pharmacists

Aim: To investigate whether a rural continuing education (CE) program delivered by videoconference can enhance access to, and uptake of, CE among pharmacists and determine their satisfaction with videoconference for the delivery of CE. Method: A postal survey was sent to 33 registered pharmacists in south-west Victoria and south-east South Australia who had attended at least one videoconference CE session organised in that region. Results: Respondents worked in different areas of pharmacy, and 40% worked in more than one area of pharmacy. The use of videoconference facilities has increased access to and participation in CE generally, and most participants (88%) have found it to be an acceptable medium for delivery. Increased access to high-quality CE opportunities, and reduced travel time for CE were seen as the principal benefits of the medium. Negative aspects included technical glitches, organisational issues, and the time-lag in voice transmission. Overall, most participants were happy to receive a substantial proportion of their contact CE using this medium. Conclusions: Videoconference technology is a valuable tool for the delivery of carefully structured CE sessions in rural and remote areas with an appropriate information technology infrastructure.

The new heritage studies and education, training, and capacity-building

Over the last three decades, community and professional views of what constitutes significant cultural heritage have broadened in many countries around the world. Heritage practice has moved from a narrowly technical or fabric focus to a values-based approach engaging all stakeholders, including indigenous communities. While much Western heritage knowledge and practice remains indispensable, gaps can be filled in by drawing on other knowledge areas and ethical considerations, including links between heritage practice and human rights. These new directions require new approaches in the preparation of practitioners as well as others engaged in heritage processes. In addition to education and training, a third concept – capacity-building – is overarching and potentially powerful in reaching new heritage actors. The aim of giving heritage a valued role in the life of the community, which applies at global, national, and local levels, represents the greatest challenge for educators, trainers, and capacity-builders in the contemporary world.

A PHENOMENOLOGY OF MIMETIC LEARNING AND MULTIMODAL COGNITION: INTEGRATING EXPERIENTIAL KNOWLEDGE INTO PROGRAMS IN RHETORIC, COMPOSITION, AND TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION

My dissertation emphasizes a cognitive account of multimodality that explicitly integrates experiential knowledge work into the rhetorical pedagogy that informs so many composition and technical communication programs. In these disciplines, multimodality is widely conceived in terms of what Gunther Kress calls “socialsemiotic” modes of communication shaped primarily by culture. In the cognitive and neurolinguistic theories of Vittorio Gallese and George Lakoff, however, multimodality is described as a key characteristic of our bodies’ sensory-motor systems which link perception to action and action to meaning, grounding all communicative acts in knowledge shaped through body-engaged experience. I argue that this “situated” account of cognition – which closely approximates Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception, a major framework for my study – has pedagogical precedence in the mimetic pedagogy that informed ancient Sophistic rhetorical training, and I reveal that training’s multimodal dimensions through a phenomenological exegesis of the concept mimesis. Plato’s denigration of the mimetic tradition and his elevation of conceptual contemplation through reason, out of which developed the classic Cartesian separation of mind from body, resulted in a general degradation of experiential knowledge in Western education. But with the recent introduction into college classrooms of digital technologies and multimedia communication tools, renewed emphasis is being placed on the “hands-on” nature of inventive and productive praxis, necessitating a revision of methods of instruction and assessment that have traditionally privileged the acquisition of conceptual over experiential knowledge. The model of multimodality I construct from Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, ancient Sophistic rhetorical pedagogy, and current neuroscientific accounts of situated cognition insists on recognizing the significant role knowledges we acquire experientially play in our reading and writing, speaking and listening, discerning and designing practices.

Undergraduate Social Education Student’s Perspectives about the Profession

Higher education institutions, responsible for training social educators, should ensure the construction of a profile marked by their technical versatility and whose socio-educational intervention is directed at all people, regardless of their situations in life. Reflection on the construction of this profile is fundamental given the difficulties of identity that the profession faces. In this context, we sought to develop a study which would allow us to identify how the students of a degree course in Social Education characterise this professional, in order to reflect on the contribution of training provided by the institution concerned and, if necessary, make the adjustments arising from the results. This is a qualitative, exploratory study, using an unstructured questionnaire applied to a convenience sample of 140 Portuguese students of the three years of a degree course in Social Education. Its emerging categorical content analysis was performed using the NVivo software, version 11. The main results point to a broad vision of the profession and are not limited to the work geared to specific populations or issues, valuing the relevance of the professional in the field of non-assistance socio-educational intervention. The main area of overlap between training objectives and students’ perceptions about practice allows the impact of training to be positively assessed, despite possible curricular adjustments resulting from further analysis, including the need to reinforce community intervention, undervalued by students, even though it plays a key role for social educators.

Student’s Perception on the Personal Impact of a Social Education Degree Internship

The functional profile of the social educator is based on the development of theoretical, technical and personal/relational skills, which should guide training courses organization. Assuming the shortcomings of a merely theoretical approach, besides a consistent preparation in theoretical and essential technical contents for socio-educational intervention, practice in context should be favoured as an opportunity to develop professional skills, together with a critical reflection on the functional profile. This study emerges from the need to reflect and rethink the internship, as well as how the respective supervision is developed, of the degree in social education at the School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, and it is based on the students’ perceptions about the impact of the internship on personal development. This is a qualitative and exploratory study, using the documentary analysis of 50 final internship reports. From the content analysis, four categories emerged referring to gains in terms of acquiring and managing knowledge, development of technical skills, personal and relational development and reinforcement of professional identity. The importance given to personal and relational development should be noted (41.4% of mentions) taking into account its relevance in constructing a professional identity. Findings on the technical skills and on the increase of profession knowledge, also by mobilising theoretical training, positively reinforce the internship model that is based on a proximity supervision approach and on a dialogical perspective of the professional learning.

Traditional Toys and Student Motivation and Commitment in Technological Education

Technological Education is a subject where students acquire knowledge and technical skills, which will enable them to analyse and resolve specific situations and will prepare them for an increasingly technological world. This course requires students to gain knowledge and know-how such that motivation and commitment are crucial for the development of classroom projects and activities. It is in this context that traditional toys come up in this study as catalysts for motivation and student interest. Thus, the aim of the research performed is to understand whether the units of work related to traditional toys promote the students’ motivation and commitment on Technological Education. In terms of methodology, we carried out an exploratory research of qualitative nature, based on semi-structured interviews with teachers and students in the 2nd cycle of basic education at five schools in the municipality of Viseu, Portugal. Nine teachers and forty-five Technological Education students, aged between 10 and 12 years, attending the 5th and 6th years of schooling participated. Content analysis of the answers revealed that the implementation of units of work involving the construction of traditional toys are conducive to students’ motivation and commitment, constituting an added value in Technological Education. As this is a classroom project, it allows students to apply technical knowledge they have acquired. Thus, starting from a first idea, it allows them to experience all of the stages of toy building, from conception to completion, contributing to greater student satisfaction in the teaching-learning process.